Building a Wireless Network with Linux

While being able to network two laptops wirelessly is a lot of fun and can be quite handy, I was still not satisfied. I have a local area network (LAN) in the house, spanning several computers hubbed together in the basement and up two levels to an upstairs office with another hub of three computers. Being a Linux user, I want more from my hardware and wanted to get much more functionality out of my wireless network. I wanted to be able to roam the house or sit by the pool with a wireless laptop, and also network with all computers on the LAN while browsing the Web, doing e-mail and so on. The cards are advertised as being able to communicate at least 500 feet through walls and 1000 feet within “line of sight”.

Unfortunately, according to Webgear, the Aviator 2.4 cards are meant to be used only for peer-to-peer networking. If you purchase the Aviator Pro line of cards, you can then buy a piece of hardware called a wireless “access point” that hooks into your LAN via RJ45 to provide a bridge into your network or from another network. The access point costs several hundred dollars, even with diligent Internet shopping. A wireless access point is not offered for the Aviator 2.4 series.

This is where being a member of a Linux users group comes in handy. Thanks to friends in the Northern Virginia Linux Users Group, NOVALUG, I was able to create my wireless network. Following tips from messages on NOVALUG's mailing list, I installed one of the Aviator ISA PCMCIA slot adapters in my server in the basement. The server's first interface, eth0, has an assigned IP address of 192.168.2.XX. I installed the Aviator card as eth1 with an IP address of 192.168.1.1. After the wireless card was “started”, I then used the route command to route wireless (eth1) traffic through eth0:

/sbin/route add 192.168.1.1 gw 191.168.2.

To complete the services, I then crafted a simple IP masquerading script (based on information courtesy of Greg Pryzby, NOVALUG's founder):

#!/bin/sh
case "$1" in start)
      /sbin/modprobe ip_masq_ftp
/sbin/ipchains -A forward -s 192.168.2.0/24 -j MASQ
/sbin/ipchains -A forward -s 192.168.1.0/24 -j MASQ
      echo "NAT Started" ;; stop)
/sbin/ipchains -F
      echo "NAT Stopped" ;; *)
      echo "Usage: ipmasq {start|stop}" ;;
esac

/sbin/route add default gw 192.168.1.1

Figure 1. Network Configuration

Then I ran into trouble. When I was down in the basement near the server, connection tests ran okay with the wireless laptop. However, when I ranged too far from the server, for some reason the cards would lose communication, or I could not “join” the “started” server connection. If you read more about wireless networking's coverage and reliability, you'll learn that the quality of a connection can be influenced by many factors. I later found out the equipment in the basement was located too close to an earthen wall, and for some reason, the signal was being blocked. I had to move the connection, but I still wanted full access to the LAN and the Internet.

I then removed the Aviator card from the server and reinstalled the card on an ancient spare laptop (LaptopA) upstairs with two Type II PCMCIA slots. Like the server, one laptop slot provided an eth0 interface to the LAN (with an IP of 192.168.2.32), while the other was configured as eth1 with the wireless card (and an IP of 192.168.1.1). IP masquerading on the server was forwarding packets from the PPP connection to the laptop, but in order to provide service to the wireless laptop, I had to use IP masquerading on LaptopA again:

/sbin/ipchains -A forward -s \
192.168.1.0/24 -j MASQ

Now everything worked fine! I could communicate with the rest of the LAN (such as from the Wireless to Computer B or the Server).

A simple route command on the server, using the wireless laptop's IP address along with the “hardwired” eth0's IP address (from LaptopA) also allowed the rest of the LAN to ping the wireless computer:

/sbin/route add 192.168.1.2 \
gw 192.168.2.XX

Believe me when I say it was somewhat of a learning experience—I never envisioned having to forward information from two computers.